We didn’t walk for long, and the whole time my eyes were watching Dakkone. It just seemed strange to me. After everything he had said back there, mainly about being hunted, and he was helping me. The more I thought about it the more bad scenarios played out in my mind. Eventually I gave up trying to figure it out and just walked.
It wasn’t long, and when we finally stopped we were standing in a small alley. The place smelled of mildew, wet rags and garbage. Nervously I rubbed my right arm with my left hand, glancing around. Places like this gave me the creeps. There were so many things that could be lurking in the shadows.
Hearing a noise to my right I jumped. Dakkone let out a small chuckle when we both realized it was only a rat. A rather big rat, but still just a rat. “I don’t like this,” I mumbled to myself, watching as the black creature scurried off and under a pile of trash.
“It’s not that bad, is it? Could be a lot worse,” stated Dakkone, leaning back against one of the walls with his arms crossed over his chest.
My thoughts moved to how the guy in front of my was a demon. He looked like any other human guy, and yet he was far from that. I couldn’t help but wonder just how many more like him were out there, how many people I had met weren’t really human at all. “Says you. I’m not exactly fond of standing in a dark alley where who-knows-what kind of creatures could be lurking and watching my every move.”
Again I was met with a small chuckle from Dakkone. “Is that really what you’re afraid of?” he said, leaning up from the wall and letting his arms fall down by his side as he walked towards me. “Believe me, there are much, much worse things out there than you’ve seen so far,” he said quietly, looking me straight in the eyes.
A chill shot up my spine and I quickly averted my gaze. Something about the way he looked at me when he spoke, and the way his voice was made my skin crawl. It felt like I had millions of tiny creatures running around right under the surface of my skin. “So what if I am?” I questioned, chancing a glance at him
His face was stern, as if he was scolding a small child. Unconsciously I moved my weight from one foot to the other, trying to ignore the feeling I was getting as he watched me. “If that’s the case you have a lot more to learn than I first thought,” he said, letting out a small sigh as his expression softened. “Guess you’re not the one to blame here, though. Not as if you knew about all this before now.”
Everything went quiet again and I could hear the small creatures, rats, moving about in the piles of trash. The longer we stood there, not looking at the other, the more uneasy I became. “Why?” I asked, receiving a questioning look from Dakkone. “Why are you helping me? You said the angels were hunting you, so why are you helping me? I mean, I’m an angel as well. Shouldn’t you be trying to kill me or something?” I questioned before I realized it.
At first I thought for sure Dakkone would say something like he wasn’t helping me, he was just toying with me. That he had brought me out here to kill me and show off to every other being, especially those of Heaven. All to prove he wasn’t to be taken lightly.
Would you kill a baby just because it’s parents were killers?” he replied.
It only took a second to understand what he was saying and I let my eyes fall to my feet. Dakkone wasn’t like anyone else I had ever met, and surely not like the way I would expect a demon to be. They were always shown as bloodthirsty, merciless killers whose only goal was to cause chaos and death. If anything, he was the exact opposite. Which raised another question. “Why are they after you?”
This time he didn’t look at me, his attention turned to the sky in silence. Maybe I had crossed a line asking such a thing, and I wished I could take it back. “It happened over two centuries ago, when I was still naïve and thought nothing could happen to me. I felt I ran the whole world, and no one could do anything about it. Back then I never thought about the consequences of my actions, about how much attention I would ultimately bring myself. How many people I would hurt. Everything was pretty much the same for a while, until I made the wrong move and caused a whole city to disappear from the map.”
He stopped, my eyes glued to him with what he had just said. A whole city disappearing off the map? That just didn’t seem possible. He was one just one person. Was he really that strong?
I thought about what had happened on the way here with Jake. Jake had actually seemed a bit scared at the sight of Dakkone. I had a feeling being on the same side with the guy in front of me was a very good thing. Having him as an enemy would probably cause me to end up dead. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want. It wasn’t my place to ask,” I stated, hoping he wasn’t going to hate me for all this.
Dakkone shook his head slightly, closing his eyes as if he was thinking everything through. “It’s fine. Not as if it’s a secret, and you’ll hear it sooner or later. I’d much rather you hear it from me than someone who wants to turn you against me,” he replied, opening his eyes and glancing at me for a moment before returning his gaze to the sky.
“I was doing something I had millions of times before, causing trouble and chaos just for the laughs of it. Seeing the look of fear on humans faces was always fun, especially when I was the one to cause it. But little did I know that that specific city was crawling with all sorts of gangs. Gangs not of humans, but of creatures of the underworld. I ended up getting on the bad side of a few other them, and the good of others. It all boiled down to a war that consumed the city, and ultimately caused a blast that destroyed it and everyone in it. I barely managed to get out alive,” he finished.
“I’m…. sorry.”
It was the only thing I could think to say as I looked at him. He seemed truly regretful of the whole thing, and I couldn’t imagine what it felt like. Knowing you were the initial cause of an entire city being wiped out. Even if he hadn’t done it on purpose, or knowingly, he had caused the war between the gangs that lead to it. All those innocent people’s lives that were lost. He had to live each and every day with it. “Not your fault. It happened a long time ago, and I’m paying for it every day,” he said, and I knew there was something more.
Cautiously, I walked over to him and placed a hand on his arm. He looked down at me, a small smile of thanks on his face. We just stood there, in complete silence for a while. “You know that’s not all, don’t you?” he asked, and kept talking before I had time to reply, his eyes back on the night sky once more. “It wouldn’t have bothered me so much if it was just the humans and such that got killed that day. The thing is, I had met someone while I was there, and fell in love with her. She was half human, half demon. That didn’t matter to me, though, she was incredible. That day, the blast took her as well.”
